Short and Sweet
by fourthage
Summary: A collection of drabbles mostly written for challenges. Recently updated with a Hinata drabble.
1. Almost, Change, Doesn't

**Almost**  
While Naruto was gone, it was easy to ignore Sasuke's absence. She could feel it, of course, but it was undefined, like half of one of her mother's pottery molds. After Naruto returns, he forms the other half and the outline of the empty space is painfully clear. When he walks with her, he leaves just enough room for it between them, and the gesture is almost enough to make her love him.

She lets Naruto kiss her and more, and if he isn't very good at first, well, neither is she. Maybe, she thinks, "almost" will be good enough.

**Change**  
It's all wrong. The shape is right but the dimensions aren't; it's been three years. Sasuke doesn't fit their mold anymore.

They've changed as well, she and Naruto. He used to be their common ground. Her crush. Naruto's rival. They've made their own common ground since then. Their walls curve around more now than where he used to be.

She wonders if the empty space he left will stretch to hold him again, or if the walls of it (the walls of _them_) will crack and shatter. She watches Sasuke and Naruto fight, and wonders if she wants them to.

**Doesn't**  
When Sasuke looks first at Naruto, Sakura doesn't notice.

When Sasuke's first words are to Naruto, Sakura doesn't care.

When the first time Sasuke smiles is for Naruto, Sakura tells herself it doesn't matter.

When Naruto talks Sasuke into a boys-only ramen night, Sakura doesn't object.

When Naruto is late coming home, Sakura doesn't wait up.

And when he returns well after midnight, smelling of sweat and sex and Sasuke, she doesn't turn over and she doesn't cry.


	2. The Long and Short of It

**Title:** The Long and Short of It  
**Challenge:** Proving something  
**Words:** 100  
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Ino grows her hair out again, but Sakura keeps hers short. Sometimes she sees Ino in the village and allows herself a moment of envy for the curtain of hair that hangs down Ino's back, but it doesn't last as long as it used to. Long hair was waiting for Sasuke to make the first move. Long hair was letting her teammates do the hard work. Long hair was being insecure and insensitive and immature and useless and _weak_. Long hair was playing it safe. Sakura is sick of long hair.

She's going to show her back to the world.


	3. Healing Hands

**Title:** Healing Hands  
**Challenge:** Healing Hands  
**Un-Bonuses:** No blonds, green, water, or noodles.  
**Words:** 200  
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Sakura is a med-nin; she is her team's healer. She counts each pulse of blood through the artery in Naruto's neck, measures the expansion of Sai's lungs every time he breathes, and imagines the artery cut, the lung pierced. _This is normal_, she tells herself as she mentally performs the repairs, her hands half-forming the positions of the healing-jutsu. _I can't be unprepared._

What is not normal, Sakura is sure, is imagining causing that damage. She punches Sai when he insults Sasuke, but it would be easy (_so easy_, her mind whispers) to extend her chakra as her fist connects and cause his brain to swell and press against his skull. No one expects an attack from their healer. The thought repulses her almost as soon as she has it. She doesn't hit him again.

Team 7 returns from their mission and Sakura goes straight to the Hokage's office. She's still not ready, she says. But Tsunade shakes her head and tells Sakura that this, like everything in else, has a hidden meaning. When Sakura doesn't understand, Tsunade smiles sadly and says she failed Orochimaru long before he betrayed her.

Sakura is a med-nin, and she is her team's control.


	4. Art of the Valentine

**Title:** Art of the Valentine  
**Challenge:** Mother  
**Words:** 100  
--------------------------------

Unlike other ninjutsu, the Art of the Valentine is matrilineal. Ino was four the first time she saw her mother use it. She walked into the front room to find her father moaning in pain and her mother collapsed on the floor. She drew the appropriate conclusion and screamed.

Her father left them soon after. The neighbors said it was her mother's fault, but Ino knew she was only protecting herself.

Or so she thought.

"We had our first sex-ed class today." Ino announced as she walked in the door. "So, why is it _really_ called Art of the Valentine?"


	5. Say It With

**Title:** Say it with . . .  
**Challenge:** Say What?  
**Bonuses:** Well, Naruto and Sakura are in character.  
**Words:** 100  
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"Open it."  
"You open it."  
"It's addressed to you."  
Naruto grunted and looked at the package that had arrived for him. A package with "Orochimaru" prominently displayed in the return address. Sakura rolled her eyes and reached for it.  
"Fine. I'll open it. It might have something to do with Sasuke."  
"Sasuke should send his own damn mail."  
"Oh, shut up." Sakura tore open the top and blinked.  
"Well?"  
"Um."  
"Lemme – huh?"  
"I . . . think it's symbolic. That one means 'pride' so it's probably Sasuke. That one's 'unwanted affection' and that one's 'blind loyalty.'"  
"Us?"  
"Yeah."  
Silence.  
"Sasuke's a _tiger lily?_"


	6. Fairytales

**Title**: Fairytales  
**Challenge**: Animals  
**Words**: 196  
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Once upon a time, there was a snake, a slug, and a frog. The frog loved the slug and the slug loved the snake and the snake, well, he loved himself.

It ended badly, as such things do.

The snake shed his skin and left. The slug ran away to pour salt on herself. The frog stayed, but burned his memories.

Time moved on, as time does.

And once upon a little later, there was a snake, a slug, and a frog. The slug loved the snake and the snake loved the past and the frog, well, he loved them both.

They met their predecessors and things went badly, but not as they always do.

Because the slug was also a flower, so she grew as she poured knowledge on herself. Because the frog was also a fox and his fire cleansed as well as destroyed. Because the snake, and he _was_ a snake, was distracted by the love of the slug and the frog, so when he shed his skin he missed a tiny piece by his heart.

It started badly, but it will end happily. Because this is a story, and that's what stories do.


	7. No Friend Like An Old Enemy

**Title**: No Friend Like An Old Enemy  
**Challenge**: Divergences  
**Words**: 100  
**Bonuses:** Saving a heck of lot dead characters  
**Notes:** This drabble assumes Gaara is a few months older than Naruto.  
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Kyuubi passed by Fire Country. It went instead to the Village of Sand in Wind Country for Shukaku. First and last of the bijuu, they were old enemies. When the world was younger their battles had raged for years on end. The other bijuu alternately made and betrayed alliances as it pleased them, or even ignored each other for centuries at a time, but Kyuubi and Shukaku's enmity was sure and steady.

And now this old enemy was lately trapped in a human infant. Those upstart mortals had dared imprison a bijuu. Yes, Kyuubi was going to Sunagakure.

To laugh.


	8. A Different Victor

**Title:** A Different Victor  
**Challenge:** Divergences  
**Words:** 100  
--------------------------

Their fight is close, but Naruto has the edge. Afterwards, he yells at Sasuke for a full half-hour, then kicks him awake so he can hear all the creative ways Naruto's thought up to call him a jerk.

When Kakashi arrives an hour later, Naruto's only half-way through the Ls. Sasuke stays silent until they get back to Konoha, then he stops at the village gates and says, "Someday you'll be wrong about me."

Naruto leaves off in mid-insult (he was almost done with the Ws) and gives Sasuke a Look.

"Only when you start being right about yourself."


	9. Anything For You, Dear

**Title: **Anything For You, Dear  
**Challenge:** Gender-bender  
**Words: **100  
**Notes:** Because I believe in equal opportunity.  
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Sakura didn't visit the hairdresser for almost a year after the rumor that Sasuke liked long hair. When Sasuke remarked one day that weaklings were a burden, Sakura hit the books, determined to be the best in the class. Upon learning that Sasuke despised that she took her family for granted, Sakura vowed to be more appreciative of what she had.

So when Sasuke, after one too many drinks at the end of a nasty mission, let it slip that he preferred guys, figuring out a permanent male version of Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu was just a matter of time.


	10. The Dog Whisperer

**Title:** The Dog-Whisperer  
**Challenge:** Gender-bender  
**Words:** 111  
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Hinata was used to Kiba talking to himself. He'd disagree that's what he did, but since she couldn't interpret Akumaru's barks and whines, it was all the same to her. Sometimes when Shino was feeling bored he'd fill in Akumaru's side of the conversation and make Kiba mad and Hinata laugh.

"Stop sticking your nose on my neck, Akumaru! I know I smell different."

_whine, sniff, whine_

"Yes, you smell so much better now."

"Shut up, Shino."

_snuffle_

"You shut up, too."

_growl, bark_

"But you're my bitch now."

"This is temporary, dammit!"

Of course, Hinata reflected as she choked on her field rations, there's always too much of good thing.


	11. Doctor Notes

**Title:** Doctor Notes  
**Challenge:** Medical Records  
**Words:** 119  
**Notes:** From the file of Rock Lee  
-----------------------------------

Wednesday  
Patient healing at alarmingly slow rate, bloodline interference? – T

Ask Maito Gai. – R

Idiot taught patient Lotus technique. Slow healing explained. – T

Thursday  
Sand all over sheets. Speak to cleaning crew. – R

Monday  
Patient awake. Wanted to warn you. – R

Tuesday  
Is patient related to Gai? – T

No. – R

Friday  
Patient refuses to stay in bed. Recommend sedative. – T

Usual dosage ineffective. Double? – R

Go for it. - T

Saturday  
Sedative completely useless. Suggest tying patient to bed. – R

Sunday  
Ropes no good. Chains? – T

Tuesday  
Chains no good. Found patient doing one-armed push-ups with broken arm. Help. – R

Saturday  
Tsunade back. Taking over patient. Objections? – T

Are you kidding? – R

Drinks later? – T

God, yes. - R


	12. Like Water

**Title:** Like Water  
**Words:** 291  
------------------

Temari thinks love is like water, precious and not to be wasted. She was nonplussed by the girls in Konoha, by the way they threw the word about like they had an endless supply of it. Temari shares her love with only two people.

The first of these is Kankuro, the elder of her two younger brothers. He takes his share matter-of-factly and returns it in equal portion. The flow between them is quiet but strong. Those from other villages say they have no family feeling, but children of the desert know the purest water is buried deep. Neither Temari nor Kankuro speak of the love they wasted on their father.

The second person Temari gives her love to is her youngest brother, aptly named Gaara of the Desert. He drinks her love like a man lost there for days, and all she receives in return is the rare blossoming of his smile. Temari doesn't resent the inequality. She knows her father poisoned Gaara's supply years ago, a crime she will not forgive. Perhaps she and Kankuro can give him enough of their own that Gaara can have a second, untainted reservoir, to share as he will.

Temari does not love Shikamaru, the Konoha ninja who bested her with one breath and conceded his victory with the next. He is too unpredictable, a cloud that promises rain but drifts haphazardly with the wind. Water in the sky is useless, and Temari is no fool.

She is seventeen the first time she sees fog. A freak weather pattern brings the clouds down to cover the village, and the air is so thick she can almost drink it. There is water on Temari's cheeks that night, and it is not for her brothers.


	13. Meddling Kids

**Title:** Meddling Kids  
**Challenge:** Crossovers  
**Words:** 185  
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It should have been an easy mission. The country had no ninja village, and half the people seemed not to have even heard of ninjas. Kabuto should have had no trouble infiltrating the mansion and retrieving the gold, necessary for the rarer medical treatments he used.

And yet, every careful mechanism he set somehow morphed into clumsy traps a first year student could detect. Instead of using kunai, he found himself hiding behind curtains and going, "Woooo." And right now, he should be able to untie the very simple knot on the rope that held him and escape, but all he could do was stand and glare through his mask at the people (and dog) who surrounded him.

The blond one reached out and took off Kabuto's mask. There were gasps, and the redhead said, "Mr. Kabuto!"

Kabuto wanted to grin evilly. He wanted to slide the kunai down his sleeve, cut the ropes, and leave no witnesses. Instead, to his everlasting horror, his mouth opened and he said, "I would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!"


	14. Sign Language

**Title: **Sign Language  
**Words: **100  
**Challenge: **None  
**Characters**: Temari  
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In the daimyo's court, women speak with their fans instead of their mouths. A flick here, a touch there, the snap open or close speaks volumes to one in the know. Temari is taught the language because a ninja never says no to a new way to eavesdrop. When she visits the court in person, she notices the women have a second, private language they use among themselves. Its movements are sharper and its vocabulary more extensive than that of the general court.

Temari takes back one line of this secret language to Suna. Just one, but it's a killer.


	15. Daddy is a Verb

**Title: **Daddy is a Verb  
**Challenge:** Love  
**Words:** 438  
---------------------------------

_There was nothing left of Iruka's parents to bury. He was given an empty box at their funeral – just one of many in the days that followed the nine-tailed fox's defeat – and was quietly forgotten._

Naruto's first day of class was marked by three water ballons, a frog in a girl's desk (they all shrieked, so Iruka was never sure whose desk it was), a lunchtime tussle for the last fresh meat bun that somehow ended up with half of the the class sporting bloody noses and black eyes, and the worst ninjutsu form Iruka had seen since, well, himself. Whatever dislike Iruka expected to feel was lost in sheer exasperation.

_The first few weeks were the worst, especially the mornings. He'd wake up and wonder why he couldn't smell coffee, and then he'd wake up further and remember that there was no one left to make it._

_Iruka was usually late for school those days. Boys weren't supposed to cry, and red eyes took a while to go away._

Naruto's apartment was a mess. Half the kitchen was taken up by the overflowing trash and the dresser in the bedroom might as well not even exist. The training area managed to be the cleanest by virtue of having the least amount of stuff. And it was all Naruto's. Nothing to indicate anyone else had ever lived there, or even visited.

Iruka had come over to chew Naruto out for drawing mustaches on the pictures in the teacher's lounge. (The teachers and the rest of Naruto's class had been at the graduation ceremony.) He looked at at Naruto sitting on the bed, legs drawn up and shoulders tensed for another lecture, and then back at the piles of empty instant ramen cups.

"Want to go get some real ramen?" Iruka asked instead.

_In the evenings, Iruka would go to the bookshelf in his parent's bedroom and take down the volume on monsters. He shut the windows so he wouldn't have to hear the woman next door yell for her daughter to come in, and sat between his father's pillow and his mother's. The book fell open easily to the picture of the fox._

"_I hate you. I'll _always_ hate you," Iruka promised._

"And then that perverted sage tried to get me to use my sexy-no-jutsu to sneak into a women's only hotspring. He said it wouldn't count as peeking if he was looking out for his student," Naruto poked his chopsticks in his fifth bowl of ramen and snorted. "Like I was gonna fall for that again."

Iruka smiled, and knew some promises were meant to be broken.


	16. There

**Title:** There

**Words: **100

**Challenge: **Ubiquitous

Konoha's memorial for its dead is simple and unassuming, a single headstone carved with the names of those who died in the line of duty. Those who live need nothing more.

The dead are there, hidden in the shadows beneath the forest, or behind the blinding gleam of a blade in the sun. Their voices whisper softer than the rustle of the leaves, are pitched just lower than the babble of the brook. A thousand shared experiences are recalled with a smell on the breeze. Fresh-cut flowers. Roasted meat. Tobacco. They touch the living and the living do not forget.


	17. Rainy Day

**Title**: Rainy Day  
**Words**: 113  
**Notes**: For **starstruck2**, who wanted Team 7 and a rainy day.  
----------------------------------------------------------------

It rained on Team 7's sixth day together. Not immediately - when the team arrived at their usual meeting spot, the sky was an early morning grey and looked to be clear all day.

Two hours in, it was pouring.

Naruto was twice as loud as usual to prove the rain didn't bother him. Sakura fretted over her hair and took shelter under the same tree as Sasuke, inching as close together as she dared. Sasuke ignored her, ignored Naruto, and tried to ignore the suspicion that Kakashi was later than usual just so they'd be caught in the rain.

Sasuke was wrong, of course. Rain ruined the ink of Icha Icha Paradise.


	18. Four Ninja Walk Into a Bar

**Title:** Four Nina Walk Into a Bar  
**Challenge: **Laughter  
**Words:** 180

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"And that's when he realized the duck was in his bed," Anko finished. She tossed back what was left of her sake and grinned at the people sitting around the table.

"I don't believe a word of it," said Genma, lips twitching. To his right, Kurenai was laughing so hard that she had to lean on Asuma for support.

Anko stuck her tongue out at Genma and then did the same with her now-empty sake cup. He gave a long-suffering sigh, but filled it up again. "It's your turn," she said after draining half of it.

Genma looked around the table. Kurenai had stopped laughing but was still leaning on Asuma, who was carefully blowing his cigarette smoke away from her. Anko was well on her way to being absolutely smashed, and for the fun of it, not to forget; that was the good kind of crazy in her eyes. Genma found himself grinning at all of them and leaned forward conspiratorially.

"So," he began, "there was this mission with a priest and a boat of bananas . . ."


	19. Reputation

**Title: **Reputation  
**Challenge:** Pirates  
**Words: ** 128  
**Gold star: **No angst here!  
------------------------------------

Jiraiya surveyed his work with satisfaction as the timbers of the ceiling creaked. He might have gone a little overboard there, he thought. Outside, civilians were starting to congregate near the hole in the far wall, peering through falling papers to the twisted metal in the corner of the room.

Jiraiya waved his pipe genially at them, one foot planted on the back of the still struggling man. He shifted his weight a bit, pressing down on a more painful pressure point. The man jerked and then went limp.

Normally Jiraiya wouldn't have bothered. He made enough money that a few pirated copies of his books made no difference. Still, he had a reputation to uphold, and the man _had_ left out the climactic threesome in chapter seventeen.


	20. Hinata

What no one understands is that Hinata never expected her feelings to be reciprocated. She loves Naruto. He saved her cousin from crushing bitterness, has been her inspiration for more than half her life, and she loves him. It is as natural as breathing air and the flow of chakra beneath her skin. Standing between him and Pain wasn't about logic or strength or anything except the desire to protect what was most important to her.

She dies and is reborn.

In the moment before waking, she hears a fox laugh, _he is a pup yet_, and dares to hope.


End file.
